Yesterday, we made a quick visit to the Bogor Botanical Gardens. This is a beautiful sanctuary in the middle of the city that has been there since the early 1800s. Rather than me explain it all, I direct you to wikipedia.

The gardens are huge, and we barely scratched the surface. I’m looking forward to spending more time there! Luckily it only cost about a dollar each to get in. While we were there, we saw some giant lily-pads, enormous trees, a Dutch colonial graveyard, and a (somewhat disturbing) “zoological musem.” LittleB described that last one as “a bunch of real animals but they’re dead.” Yup.

Check out the pics:

These lily pads are huge. Note the sprite bottle for reference.

Of all the things at the park, the elaborate stone pathways were the most impressive to me. They’re beautiful.

The morning was a bit hazy, but it didn’t deter from the lovely views.

I took this photo to capture the beautiful pink blooms, thinking they were special. Then, just around the corner there were about a thousand more of them. I didn’t photograph those ones out of disgust.

Erotic statue – with the palace in the background! We didn’t much closer to the palace than this, but I believe you can get tours. Maybe next time.

J, doing a crazy pose as usual.

A view of the graveyard. The oldest grave dated from 1734.

A shot of B for some size perspective.

I don’t know what this tree is, but it was HUGE and scary-looking.

Part of the manicured area.

A view from the bridge. I tried to cut out most of the garbage from the shot.

We brought one of my coworkers, from Australia, who is the kids’ best friend now.

B called this an “Avatar” tree.

And here is an amazing seed from the avatar tree. It’s a type of asian pumpkin, apparently.

The sign beside the tree, showing the seeds. They fly really far!

Kids being cute. Also, is it just me or is that tree getting ready to walk away?

Yet another HUGE tree. You can get inside this one!

See? J didn’t want to come in it, because it was “filled with spider babies.” Also, LittleB is stomping on my toes in this shot